Judge Rules Alfie Evans Cannot be Transported to Italy

Updated:
Alfie Evans

Murder.

There’s no other way to describe what is happening to Alfie Evans.

The nearly two-year-old British boy has been afflicted with a mysterious brain disease that doctors are unable to cure. Yet, when Evans was removed from life support last night, he continued to breathe on his own. In fact, he’s been breathing on his own for nearly 13 hours, baffling his doctors at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool.

Alfie was taken off life support because a judge ruled against his parents seeking alternative treatment. The European Court of Rights has also rejected his parents’ plea to try different options to keep Alfie alive. Alfie’s father has been told he’ll face jail time if he attempts to remove his son from the hospital.

The case is very similar to the tragic saga of Charlie Gard last summer.

The Sun provides a little bit of Alfie’s history:

Alfie, who was born on May 9, 2016, is in a “semi-vegetative state” and has a degenerative neurological condition doctors had not definitively diagnosed.

Some experts believe he might have a mitochondrial condition – the same as Charlie Gard.

After he was admitted to Alder Hey, his parents were told he wasn’t going to make it – but he fought back to beat the infection and started breathing on his own.

But he caught another chest infection and had to go back on a ventilator when he began having more chronic seizures.

A last-minute effort was made for Alfie to be airlifted to an Italian hospital and receive alternative treatment. The Italian government went as far as to issue a stark warning to the U.K.

Now a judge has ruled that Aflie may not be taken to Italy to seek additional treatment. He may, however, be allowed to go home to live out his last moments.

This is so tragic and unnecessary. The Italian government is willing to allow Alfie passage to the country to seek an alternative. But he’s being denied by the British government.

It’s an absolute moral mockery.

Even the Pope has weighed in on the case:

Matt Walsh of the Daily Wire had some strong words for this tragedy:

This is really the essence of the problem of government-controlled medicine. When the government runs hospitals, parents lose options for their children. In this case, the loss of alternatives turned deadly.

Little Alfie doesn’t have to die like this. It is inhumane to subject him to such needless suffering.

The issue with Alfie is not just one of misguided government intervention. It was also the bureaucratization of modern western society. The hospitals operate under government edict. They don’t have the autonomy to make decisions on their own. Doctors can’t make judgments on their own without approval from a state official. The one-size-fits-all approach government takes to matters gets in the way of human compassion.

In a sane society, Alfie would have been allowed to leave the hospital to seek alternative treatment. But there is no sanity in a government-centric society.

What do you think about what happened to Alfie Evans? Tell us your thoughts below!

UPDATE – It’s official: Alfie was denied the right to travel to Italy.

By Jim E

Jim E. is a true political insider, with experience working both in Washington and outside in real America. Jim... More about Jim E

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